ZeDiglett
2013
Tight AF controls, stunning soundtrack and visuals, stellar level design. The only bad parts in my opinion are the Encore music levels, which hamper your visibility in some way that makes them really obnoxious to play. Other than that, it's a near-perfect 2D platformer that I really wish we'd get a follow-up to someday.
This game is jank as FUCK, but I have so much nostalgia for it that I like it anyway. Melee's Adventure Mode is still one of my favorite bits of Smash content, and this game's probably the most distinct Smash game from a gameplay standpoint, being from an age before Nintendo did nothing but remove tech for no reason. Plus, this game added my main man, Mewtwo, so I gotta give it props there.
Probably the Smash game I find myself coming back to the most on the merits of its singleplayer alone. Subspace is easily my favorite piece of Smash content we've ever gotten, even though we'll probably never get anything like it again. The core gameplay's pretty shit, but be honest, nobody's playing this game in 2021 for the core gameplay. (That, and I'd argue every Smash from this point on doesn't play that well anyway.)
1991
First Game Syndrome: The Game right here. Sonic is super slow with no real way of picking up speed from a standstill, and half the levels aren't designed for him to go fast at all. Combine that with all the abilities and QoL changes that would be introduced in later games, and you have a game that's very difficult to come back to even if you've never played a 2D Sonic game before.
homer it's me
buntain
simpson
buntain
simpson
2018
I like to call this game the Cave Story of our time. The entire thing was made by one man, and it's really impressive considering that. The game looks great, the world's rich and fun to explore, the soundtrack's really nice, and the narrative is surprisingly fantastic. This is a game that DESPERATELY needs more attention.
2018
An objective-focused horde shooter where you play as space dwarves? Sign me the hell up! The classes are all really fun and fill a unique role to the point that you'll probably find one that suits your niche. Wanna play frontliner? Play Gunner! Wanna do things nobody else wants to do? Play Scout! Don't wanna aim? Play Driller! The missions and dungeons are all procedurally generated, meaning that it'll take a while for this game to get old. The devs are still working on it, too, so we've got a lot of new content to look forward to yet!
2011
Short, but good.
I actually think I enjoyed this game marginally more than I did Smash for Wii U, maybe due to the modes this one had (Smash Run on its own is better than the entirety of Smash Wii U), but it still isn't great in terms of gameplay IMO and is also made obsolete by Ultimate.
The most fun I had with this game was modding it. Other than that, it's very forgettable and basically obsolete now that Ultimate exists.
2019
Honestly don't think this game was that bad. We can't trade in every Pokemon to this game (which I honestly never did in the first place, mainly due to the scam known as Pokemon Home), but that's more than made up for by how good this game's mon selection is. I'm sorry, but if you can't make a team of six Pokemon you like out of this game's roster, YOU'RE the problem at that point. The only part of this game I actually think is bad is the story, but let's be honest, if you're playing POKEMON for the narrative, you're doing it wrong.
2018
Celeste is one of the best platformers ever made. The level design is incredible, the narrative is inspiring and masterfully woven into the gameplay, and Madeline herself is incredibly fun to control. This game has some gruelingly difficult parts, but I rarely find myself getting frustrated at it due to the encouraging and uplifting atmosphere it has. There's nothing else to it, it's just a great game and you should play it.
2015
FLÄSHYN
Nuclear Throne is one of the best roguelikes ever made in my book. Shooting bad guys in the face has never been so much fun, and some of the weapons in this game are simply absurd. The characters are pretty interesting and have unique abilities that make them all fun to play as (except Chicken, fuck that guy). Sometimes you get cucked by a bad spawn or whatever, but I find RNG is surprisingly not as prevalent in NT as it is in other roguelikes. Even if you get the absolute worst guns and mutations the game has to offer, it's still up to YOU whether the run lives or dies in Nuclear Throne. And that's how every roguelike should be.
Nuclear Throne is one of the best roguelikes ever made in my book. Shooting bad guys in the face has never been so much fun, and some of the weapons in this game are simply absurd. The characters are pretty interesting and have unique abilities that make them all fun to play as (except Chicken, fuck that guy). Sometimes you get cucked by a bad spawn or whatever, but I find RNG is surprisingly not as prevalent in NT as it is in other roguelikes. Even if you get the absolute worst guns and mutations the game has to offer, it's still up to YOU whether the run lives or dies in Nuclear Throne. And that's how every roguelike should be.
Over 1,000 playtime hours speak for themselves. Isaac is one of the big 3 roguelikes along with Nuclear Throne and Hades in my book and was the game that introduced me to the genre. Dollars to donuts, Isaac's probably the biggest roguelike in existence, to the point that there's STILL stuff I haven't unlocked nearly 1.5k hours in. If you're looking for an "endless game," look no further, because you've found it.
Sinnoh's probably my favorite region to this day, and Platinum brings some much needed improvements to the game's progression over Diamond and Pearl. The HMs aren't great, but the only bad one this game added was Defog, and that one's not technically required for anything, so you don't even have to run it if you don't want to. Other than that, Platinum probably has my favorite balance of difficulty of any Pokemon game; the level curve's not jumping ahead of you like in HGSS, but it does a good job keeping pace with a player who's consistently battling trainers and ends up providing a respectable challenge unless you go out of your way to grind.
Now we just wait and see how BDSP follow up on this.
Now we just wait and see how BDSP follow up on this.